


Plant the Tree and Watch it Grow

by Fighting4Fandoms



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Bilbo Baggins Dies In Battle of Five Armies, Dwarf/Hobbit Relationship(s), F/M, Female Bilbo Baggins, Female Bilbo Baggins/Thorin Oakenshield, Good King Thorin, Rebuilding Erebor, Sad with a Happy Ending, Temporary Character Death, Thorin Oakenshield Lives
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:35:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25390219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fighting4Fandoms/pseuds/Fighting4Fandoms
Summary: Thorin does not die at the Battle of the Five Armies and neither does Fili or Kili. There is a death however... one that Thorin will never get over.
Relationships: Bilbo Baggins/Thorin Oakenshield
Comments: 4
Kudos: 91





	1. A Cold Reception

Have you ever felt heartbreak? The feeling of your heart shatter over one person? 

Thorin was so close to dying, the Pale Orc towered over him but the blade did not fo through him but he felt someone on top of him. Thorin rolled over, holding the invisible force before slicing the Orc's head off his shoulders. 

He looked to the ground and Bella appeared out of the air. 

"No..." Thorin felt the breath from his lungs escape in one movement. She looked so small on the ground, her golden curls stained brown and red with blood. Her eyes were closed for a moment. He knelt beside her and rolled her over, her face pale. He put her head under his chin and rocked her like a child. Yet, Bella was not the same Hobbit as the one he met all those months ago. 

"Stay with me." His words fell on deaf ears. He looked down to her stomach, he pressed his hand against her skin, the applied pressure caused her to open her eyes.

"Thorin?" 

"I'm here." He sniffled. "Stay with me."

Bella smiled. Her smile was so beautiful, like nothing he had ever seen before. She had grown since their journey began and if he could take back everything he said and did ar the gate... he would have. 

"Please... you'll be alright, you'll live and..."

"And?"

"I never loved anyone, not until I met you. You're my One, Bella..." Thorin was not afraid to cry, it was something Bella hadn't seen before. 

"Don't waste tears on me, my love." Bella opened up her hand to show him the acorn. "Take it."

"You... You..." Thorin could not find the words of what he needed to stay but Bella showed him that he didn't need to say anything.

"Plant it beside the mountain, when you watch it grow you'll know that I am always there."

"You will be here." Thorin cried. "We did not come all this way for you to die."

"I did it for you." Bella coughed, blood stained her lips. "You have to let me go..."

"...no... please..." Thorin held on to her tighter, hoping that he would have longer with her. 

"It was always you..." Bella sighed and her eyes closed. Thorin held her to his chest but she was cold. He roared for his heart had been broken into a million pieces. 

He could hear footsteps behind him and the sounds of gasping and denial. The Dwarves of the company gathered around and stood beside and behind him. 

Dwalin knelt beside him, watching as Thorin sobbed, staring out to the horizon.

"Let's get her inside, Thorin."

Thorin nodded, "she's cold."

Dwalin squeezed his shoulder, "aye... come."

Fili and Kili had to drag Thorin form Bella but even then Thorin wouldn't let go of her, he carried her like a broken doll with a gaping wound. He remembered how she tended to his wounds after the warg attack, how she had been so gentle. Her hands were so smooth and gentle, his had been scarred and had calluses covering them. She had kissed them, saying that his outward appearance wasn't a mirror of his true inner self. 

He ignored his cousin, the Elf King, Bard and even Gandalf as he reenetered Erebor. He asked Oin to see if she was still live but the look he gave caused him to collapse to his knees, salty tears spilling from his eyes to the floor. She looked so angelic on the covers of the bed, so calm. If he didn't know better he would've said that she was sleeping but she knew better and she wasn't asleep. 

He knelt against the bed, practically crawling to it. There was a mark on her hand, the mark that reminded them of their bond. It was already faded, as was his own. Dwarves can love many times but once they meet their One they will never love anyone else but Thorin knew that already because he had never loved anyone like he had loved her. 

His heart had been wrenched out of his chest.

He did not move from that place. Time slowed down and became almost an illusion. He became deaf and blind to the world around him for how could you cure a broken heart?


	2. Courtship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A flashback to the journey part 1.

Whilst they shared a few similarities, Hobbits and Dwarves were still very much different. Not that it could be helped of course. 

Hobbits were born to the rolling hills and little streams of the Shire whilst Dwarves with born to Mountains, Caverns and Hills. Dwarves were used to the smell of adventure and the stench of blood. Hobbits... well they would look down on Bella for even going with the Dwarves. The Company did not quite understand this nor did they understand Hobbit traditions and customs. The younger members didn't even understand why Bella had not worn shoes until Balin explained that Hobbits had a thick sole therefore the did not need to wear shoes. Whilst Dwarf beards were meaningful to them, feet were sensitive to Hobbits. 

Everyone noticed how different Thorin had become when he was around Bella. He asked her to walk beside him more, he felt tremendously guilty about the way he spoke and treated her before she saved him against Azog. Even though he had treated her poorly, Bella had risked her life for him. Thorin discovered that Hobbits were more than just gentle. Bella was kind. Unbelievably so. 

Thorin knew it from the moment he laid eyes on her in her Hobbit hole that she was different. Even with her hairy feet which Thorin was not used to seeing, her golden curls and bright blue eyes made her such a beautiful creature. He did not wish to see harm befall her but at the beginning he did not really show it. He felt rather guilty of that and hoped the actions he showed her from then on could be evident of that. 

He acted cold towards her at the beginning of the journey because he was worried about getting to close to her. Thorin, regrettably, was also jealous. He saw how some of the members of his company treated her. Bofur would make her laugh and Thorin found her laugh an amazing thing to hear. Even Dwalin made him jealous. His friend showed a gentleness to him that he didn't let many people see. 

One particular day, they were making headway through the forest and he noticed a mark on his skin that had not been there the day before. Thorin had been told, when he was no more than a dwarfling, that there was a soul out there that would become bound to him. He laughed at the idea of two people sharing a mark that was meant just for the pair of them. The mark on his forearm had a crown with a small acorn carved into its skin. 

Being the only female in the group, the Dwarves allowed Bella some privacy when she washed herself. Thorin did not mean to watch but he was curious, then he saw it. The same mark that was on his skin was hers and he felt his heart stop. 

Bella was his One. 

At first... Thorin was hesitant. He knew what his One meant, for all Dwarves had been educated but a Hobbit? Was that even possible? Well the evidence was there so yes, it was true. The longer he went with the knowledge, the happier he was with his One being the little Hobbit lass who had helped them more times than he would care to admit. 

The next time Bella was washing herself, Thorin told the others to make food and do the roles he had assigned them. Carefully so he wasn't seen, Thorin hid behind the tree and watched the little thing in the water. 

"Thorin." She called. 

Thorin tried to hide himself, looking away from her. Thinking she would be angry was wrong, Bella actually whistled for him to come to her. He waited beside the grass, she was still wearing her shirt, though the water made it rather revealing. 

"I know that you're there." She giggled. "Weren't you ever told that snooping was wrong?" 

"Sorry." He shook his head, his cheeks red. 

"Why don't you join me?" She asked. 

Thorin cleaned his ear out with his finger. Perhaps he had heard her wrong? No. He hadn't. Bella was a shy thing but she slowly approached him and assisted him with his thick outer fur. 

"Doesn't it ever feel... a little heavy?" 

Thorin chuckled but his eyes were lingering on her lips and her beautifully round eyes, "...no... Well, sometimes... when I'm tired." 

"You haven't been sleeping." Bella pointed out. "I noticed." 

Thorin was left standing with no shirt and no outer jackets or coats. Bella placed them on the grass so they didn't get wet, her eyes traced the scars on his chest. She was almost too afraid to ask about them. 

"You can ask me, you know." Thorin whispered, putting his hand on top of hers against his bare chest. 

Bella didn't have too, she smiled and put her head against his chest, feeling so small against him. Thorin didn't have to ask her if she knew about their connection for it seemed as though there was an invisible chain connecting them together, binding them eternally. He put his big arms around her and for that mere moment it was just the pair of them, the pair of them against the rest of the world. 

"Do you... mind?" Bella asked, looking to pull his trousers down. 

Thorin smirked, "Really? You're that eager?" 

"I was talking about having a bath." Bella giggled. "...Okay, fine. I wasn't. I don't think an actual king would... mind." 

"You have read my mind, dear." Thorin was so big compared to Bella that he could envelope her into complete darkness. 

It wasn't like she minded though, he was so warm and she loved how she knew that he would protect her, just by him being there. 


End file.
